本研究旨在探討非英語系國家的英文系學生，他們的英文寫作行為與態度。此外，英文閱讀行為、英文寫作行為、英文寫作修正行為、英文寫作策略、英文寫作障礙、英文寫作焦慮彼此之間是否有相關性，也作出深入的研究。

    本研究以淡江大學160位英文系三年級學生為研究對象，並透過量的方法(問卷調查)與質的方法(訪談)蒐集資料進行分析。研究結果顯示，第一，英文寫作障礙與英文寫作策略的使用態度，彼此之間有顯著的正相關。第二，英文寫作障礙與英文寫作焦慮，彼此之間也有顯著的正相關。第三，英文寫作焦慮與每日練習英文寫作的時數，彼此之間有顯著的負相關。最後，建議英文寫作教學者，對學生的英文作文，盡量避免負面的評價，並且鼓勵學生多閱讀英文書籍、多練習英文寫作、與採取適當的英文寫作策略，以緩和學生英文寫作障礙與英文寫作焦慮的情形。

This study aims to investigate EFL English majors' behaviors and attitudes toward their English writing,and to examine the interrelationships among the following issues such as English reading behaviors, English writing behaviors, English writing strategies, revision behaviors, writer's block in English, and English writing apprehension. The research was conducted at Tamkang University in Taiwan. Participants of this study were 160 junior English majors from this university. Data were collected quantitatively and qualitatively by using three sets of questionnaires and interviews that focused on essay recalls. The result revealed that there was a significantly positive relationship between writer's block in English and English writing strategies. Moreover, there was a significantly positive relationship between writer's block in English and English writing apprehension. A significantly negative correlation existed between English writing apprehension and daily English writing hours. Based on the findings of this study, it was suggested that EFL instructors may avoid negative evaluations, and encourage their students to read more, to write more, and to use English writing strategies appropriately for alleviating their English writing anxiety or writer's block in English.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 

CHINESE ABSTRCT ……………………………………………………………….i

ENGLISH ABSTRCT.……………………………………………………………....ii 

TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………….. …iv 

LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………vii   

LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………......viii                                                   
 

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION                                     
	Research Background 1
    Purpose of the Study 4
    Research Questions 5
    Definition of the Terms 6
 Significance of the Study 9
    The Framework of the Study 9

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
	Writer's Block 11
    	Notion of Writer's Block 11
      Empirical Research of Writer's Block 14
  Writing Apprehension 18
      Notion of Writing Apprehension 18  
      Empirical Research of Writing Apprehension 21
  Relationships among Writing Frequency, Writer's Block,                   
Writing Apprehension, and Writing Performance 26            
Relationships among Writing Process, Writing                           
Strategies, and Writing Apprehension 30
Summary 32

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
	Subjects 33
  Data Collection Procedures 34
Instruments 36
		  Quantitative Instruments: Three Sets of Questionnaires 36
		  Qualitative Instrument 42
Data Analysis 43
                                                  
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS
	Results of the Quantitative Analysis 45
    	 Questionnaire Concerning English Reading and Writing Activities 46
      Questionnaire of Writer's Block in English 52 
      English Writing Apprehension Scale 55

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND CONCLUSION
	Discussion 61
    	Relationship Between Writer's Block in English                   
and English Writing Apprehension 61
      Relationships among Writer's Block in English, 
English Reading, and English Writing 64
 Relationships among English Writing Apprehension, 
English Reading, and English Writing 67
  Pedagogical Implications 70
Conclusion 73
  Limitations and Recommendations for Further Study 75

REFERENCES 77


APPENDIX A  Questionnaire Concerning English Reading and                 
Writing Activities (Chinese Version 83

APPENDIX B  Questionnaire of Writer's Block in English                 
              (Chinese Version) 87

APPENDIX C  English Writing Apprehension Scale                         
              (Chinese Version) 89

APPENDIX D  Questionnaire Concerning English Reading and                
Writing Activities (English Version) 91
 
APPENDIX E  Questionnaire of Writer's Block in English               
              (English Version) 96
 
APPENDIX F  English Writing Apprehension Scale                     
              (English Version) 98

APPENDIX G  Interview Questions (English Version) 100


LIST OF TABLES

Table 1   Subjects’Background Information 47   

Table 2   Means and Standard Deviations on Questionnaire Concerning English Reading and Writing Activities 49

Table 3   Factor Loadings and Cronbach’s Alphas for Questionnaire Concerning English Reading and Writing Activities 51

Table 4   Means and Standard Deviations on Questionnaire of Writer's Block in English 54

Table 5   Means and Standard Deviations on Writer's Apprehension Scale Items 57

Table 6   Inter-correlations among English Reading and Writing Activities, Writer's Block in English, English Writing Apprehension, and Revision Behaviors 58

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1  The Design Procedure of Questionnaire Concerning Reading and Writing Activities 38

References

Bannister, L. A. (1982). Writing apprehension and anti-writing: A naturalistic study of composing strategies used by college freshmen (Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, 1982). Dissertation Abstracts International, 43, 1436.

Bloom, L. Z. (1980, March). The composing processes of anxious and non-anxious writers: A naturalistic study. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Washington, DC. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 185 559)

Boice, R., & Jones, F. (1984). Why Academicians don't write. Journal of Higher Education, 55, 567-582.

Boice, R. (1994). Writing blocks and tacit knowledge. Journal of Higher Education, 64 (1), 19-54.

Brown, D. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.

Bulter, D. A. (1980). A descriptive analysis of the relationships between writing apprehension and the composing processes of selected secondary students. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Virginia, 1980). Dissertation Abstracts International, 41, 3854.

Cheng, Y., Horwitz, E., & Schallert, D. (1999). Language anxiety: Differentiating writing and speaking components. Language Learning, 49(3), 417-446.

Cheng, Y. (2002). Factors associated with foreign language anxiety. Foreign Language Annals, 35(5), 647-656.

Cheng, Y. S. (2004). A measure of second language writing anxiety: Scale development and preliminary validation. Journal of Second Language Writing, 13, 313-335.

Chen, H. C. (2001). Diagnosis of difficulties in English writing and suggested remedial instructional strategies. Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on English Teaching (pp. 300-309). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane.

Chiou, L. C. & Chang M. Y. (2006). Using predictable books to teach writing in an EFL setting. Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on English Teaching
 (pp. 345- 358). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane.

Christina, C. (2003, July). Writer’s block, merit, and the market: Working in the university of excellence. College English, 65 (6), 626.

Clark, D.C. (2005). Toward a theory of writing anxiety (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University, 2005). Dissertation Abstracts International, 66, 184.

Daly, J. A., & Miller, M. D. (1975a). The empirical development of an instrument to measure writing apprehension. Research in the Teaching of English, 9, 242-249.

Daly, J. A., & Miller, M. D. (1975b). Further studies on writing apprehension: SAT scores, success expectations, willingness to take advanced courses and sex difference. Research in the Teaching of  English, 9, 250-256.

Daly, J. A., & Wilson, D. A. (1983). Writing apprehension, self-esteem, and personality. Research in the Teaching of English, 17, 327-341.

Daly, J. A. (1985). Writing Apprehension. In M. Rose (Ed.). When a writer can’t write. New York: Guilford. pp. 43-82.

Emig, J. (1971). The composing processes of twelfth graders. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Elbow, P. (1981). Writing with power. New York: Oxford University Press.

Elbow, P. & Belanoff, P. (1995). A Community of Writers: A Workshop Course in Writing (2nd). McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Faigley, L., & Witte, S. (1981). Analyzing revision. College Composition and Communication, 32, 401-414.

Foddy, W. (1998). An empirical evaluation of in-depth probes used to pretest survey questions. Sociological Methods and Research, 27(1), 103-133.

Fox, R. (1980). Treatment of writing apprehension and its effects on composition. Research in the Teaching of English, 14 (1), 39-49.

Kaplan, R. B. (1972). The anatomy of rhetoric: Prolegomena to a functional theory of rhetoric. Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum Development.

Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading: Insights from the research. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.

Krashen, S. (2001). Incubation: A neglected aspect of the writing process. ESL Journal 4(2): 10-11.

Krashen, S. (2002). Optimal levels of writing management: a re-analysis of Boice, Education, 122 (3), 605-608.

Krashen, S. (2003). Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use: The Taipei Lectures. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Lee, S. Y. (1996). The relationship of free voluntary reading to writing proficiency and academic achievement among Taiwanese senior high school students. In Johanna Katchen & Yiu-nam Leung (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on English Teaching (pp. 119-126). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane.

Lee, S. Y. (2001a). The relationship of writing apprehension to the revision process and topic preference: A student perspective. In Peng-shian Chen & Yiu-nam Leung (Eds.), Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on English Teaching (pp. 504-516). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane.

Lee, S. Y. (2001b). What makes it so difficult to write. Taipei: Crane Publishing Company.

Lee, S. Y. (2002). The influence of cognitive/affective factors on literacy transfers. Studies in English Language and Literature (National Taiwan University of Science and Technology), 8(10), 17-32.

Lee, S. Y. (2005). Facilitating and inhibiting factors in English as a foreign language writing performance: A model testing with structural equation. Language Learning,
  55(2), 335-374.  

Lee, S. Y., & Krashen, S. (1997). Writing apprehension in Chinese as a first language. Review of Applied Linguistics, 115-116, 27-35.

Lee, S. Y., & Krashen, S. (2002). Predictors of success in writing in English as a foreign language: Reading, revision behavior, apprehension, and writing. College Student Journal, 36 (4), 532-543. 

Lee, S. Y., & Krashen, S. (2003). Writer’s block in a Chinese sample. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 97, 537-542.

Mark, N. P. & Mark H. M. (2005). Individual assessment of media writing student attitudes: recasting the mass communication writing apprehension measure. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 82 (summer 2005): 339-355.

Montgomery, A. & Crittenden, K. (1977). Improving coding reliability for open-ended questions. Public Opinion Quarterly, 41(2), 235-243.

Murray, D. (1985). A writer teaches writing (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Power, W. G., Cook, J. A., & Meyer, R. (1979). The effect of compulsory writing on writing apprehension. Research in the Teaching of English, 13, 225-230.

Reynolds, N., Diamantopoulos, A., & Schlegelmilch, B. (1993). Pretesting in questionnaire design: a review of the literature and suggestions for further research. Journal of the Market of Social Research Society, 35(2), 171-182. 

Riffe, D. & Stacks, D. (1992). Student characteristics and writing apprehension. Journalism Educator, 47(2), 39-49.

Rose, M. (1980). Rigid rules, inflexible plans, and the stifling of language: A cognitive analysis of writer’s block. College Composition and Communication, 31, 387-401.

Rose, M. (1981). The cognitive dimension of writer’s block: An examination of university students (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1981). Dissertation Abstracts International, 42, 1520.

Rose, M. (1984). Writer's block: The cognitive dimension. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Selfe, C. L. (1981). The composing processes of four high and four low writing apprehensives: A modified case study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1981). Dissertation Abstracts International, 42, 3168.

Shrewbury, M. B. (1995). The effects of collaborative learning on writing quality, writing apprehension, and writing attitude of college students in a developmental English program (Doctoral dissertation, West Virginia University, 1995). Dissertation Abstracts International, 56, 3022.

Sommers, N. (1982). Responding to student writing. College Composition and Communication, 33, 148-156.

Tarcers, J. (1991). Teaching Writing: Theories and Practices. (2nd ed.). HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Tarvers J. (1991). Teaching Writing: Theories and Practices (2nd ed. ). HarperCollins Publishers.

Thompson, L. J. (1986). An examination of relationships: Writing apprehension levels, semantic encoding performance, and holistic assessments of writing of tenth grade students (writing anxiety, analysis of cohesion, writer's block) (Doctoral dissertation, Georgia State University, 1986). Dissertation Abstracts International, 47, 3654.

Wang, L. K. (1996). How to teach Chinese students writing. In Johanna Katchen & Yiu-nam Leung (Eds.). Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on English Teaching (pp. 189-193). Taipei, Taiwan: Crane.

Williams, J., (2003). Preparing to Teach Writing. (3rd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Yoder, S. (1993). Teaching writing revision: attitudes and copy changes. Journalism educator, 48(1), 41-46. 

Zamel, V. (1983). The composing processes of advanced ESL students: Six case studies. TESOL Quarterly, 17, 165-187.
 
Zamel, V. (1985). Responding to student writing. TESOL Quarterly, 19, 79-102.